Our Licence Committee has approved an application from Dr Kathy Niakan of the Francis Crick Institute to renew her laboratory’s research licence to include gene editing of embryos.

The committee has added a condition to the licence that no research using gene editing may take place until the research has received research ethics approval.

As with all embryos used in research, it is illegal to transfer them to a woman for treatment.

This is a momentous step in CRISPR/Cas9 research, and one that is sure to create tremendous pressure for similar regulatory approvals among other democracies fearing they might fall behind in this revolutionary biotechnology. Le déluge vient.